It’s been very very hot throughout in Japan.
It’s very hot in Nagasaki too.

Many things went on in AKARI in August and we have welcomed many guests.

On August 9th, we brought thousands of paper cranes to hypocenter.
And we donate them while wishing for peace.

On 15th of August, Syorou Nagashi, 精霊流し, was held.
It’s an annual event based on buddhism.
They make a ship for their relative who passed away this year or last year.
Ship is said to go to heaven on 15th of August at once.
Ships are decorated with many things that loved one used to like.
They carry the ships to Nagasaki port.
On the way to the port, they make fire on firecracker because noisy sounds let the souls stay away from bad things.

This guest had a happy birthday in August.
We celebrated his birthday with other guests bu singing happy birthday.
She made a surprise for him by decorating balloons and cake.
It was a happy moment.

He is a guest from Netherlands.
He was such a kind guy because he brought us coffee or some snacks almost every morning. Thank you so much for your kindness.

He likes kids.

They are cute guests from also Netherlands!

How cute she is!

It’s been very hot, but guests like them ease the hotness.
Thank you so much.
From tomorrow, it’s going to be September.
We hope the sun will be tired..
Thanks for reading!

Hi, everyone!
How are you doing?

The below huge sailing ship from Russia came to Nagasaki in the end of April as an annual festival of Nagasaki called “Sailing Ship Festival”
Seeing that huge sailing ship just in front was so dynamic and overwhelming.

Nagasaki city is having a rainy season right now.
Everyday is rainy and cloudy, but these hydrangea flowers bring you a smile.
You can see these beautiful flowers along the river side, it’s also neighborhood of the hostel.

It was a sunny day a few days ago, so we decided to take a walk with our guests.
These guests are from Netherland.
We talked about lot of things like music, art, Japanese culture and so on.

We came to the main shrine of Nagasaki called “Suwa Shrine”.
It’s about 10minute-walk from the hostel.

We luckily saw Japanese wedding ceremony at the shrine.
It was so beautiful.

This shrine has small guardian dogs with interesting gimmicks.
This dog make your dream or wishes come true if you roll the dog like this.

After the shrine, we went to a local market.
We saw a dragon dance which is one of main performances in the festival “Kunchi” that takes place in October at Suwa Shrine.

We had a lunch at the market with our friends 🙂

It was a nice walk!
All we have to do is waiting for Summer while watching beautiful hydrangea flowers.
Thanks for reading!
Have a good day!

Hi, everyone.
How are you doing?

We are having one of the biggest festival in Nagasaki called “Lantern Festival”.
It’s held based on Chinese New Year.
All the city area is covered with beautiful lanterns, so it’s very beautiful.

This one is shot in China town.

This one is shot in Minato park.

This is a lion dance. They also have dragon dance.

It’s near China town.
Pink colored lanterns are so beautiful.

This one is near Spectacles bridge.
Yellow lanterns are so beautiful.

There are many guests who come to Nagasaki for the festival.
They are illustrators and came to Nagasaki by hitchhiking.

They became friends in the hostel.
It’s good to make a new friends while you are on vacation 🙂

They are friendly Korean boys.
I hope they enjoyed their stay in Nagasaki.

We had a nice time with them 🙂
Thanks for staying with us!

Spring is just around the corner.
We’re excited to see Sakura flowers.
See you next time!

Hi, everyone!
It’s cold in Nagasaki city.

In January, we had guests who are college students from USA!
They were so nice and we had a great time with them 🙂

On the last day, each student had a presentation about what they discovered or learned about Japan.
It was interesting to know how American students feel about Japan and what is interesting about Japan for them.

After the presentation, we threw a farewell party.
We served them Sara Udon which is one of Nagasaki specialities.

We had a really nice time with them!
We hope they also enjoyed their stay in Nagasaki and come back to Nagasaki again.

In the middle of January, we had heavy snow.
This is a neighbor of Hostel AKARI.

As February starts, they already started preparing Lantern Festival that is going on between 16th Feb and 4th Mar.
We’re so excited.

We made an original information board.
If you have an opportunity, please have a look at it and enjoy the festival.

Recently, we have many family guests.
This cute family is from Spain.
Look at baby’s face, he is so cute 🙂

This family is from Taiwan.
They went to Bio Park, which is a zoo in Nagasaki,
They enjoy the zoo!
Thank you for your stay!

It’s getting cold in Japan.
Take a good care of yourself everybody.
See you soon!

Hi, this is the first post in 2018.
How did you spend New Year season?

On New Year’s eve, we had soba noodle in the living room, and headed to a temple hit the bell.
Hitting the bell in a temple is a Japanese custom to celebrate New Year.

After having the soba noodle, we went to this temple.
We luckily had Matcha inside the temple.

This one is a first sunrise in 2018.
It’s said that the first sunrise is a fortune thing in Japan.

We put a calender at the reception.

We hope this year will be great one for you 🙂
See you in Nagasaki!

Hi, everyone.
It’s getting colder and colder in Nagasaki.
Looks like winter is coming.

We took a walk to Japanese garden with beautiful Autumn leaves.
It took about 15minutes to get there.

On the way to the garden, we saw this stone bridge covered with leaves.

And we had Champon for a lunch.

And kept walking…

Here we come.

This is a traditional gate for the garden.

In the garden, we saw these beautiful Autumn leaves.

There is a Japanese traditional house. Inside the house, you can enjoy some Matcha.

Had a look at the garden.

Green trees, blue sky, red leaves. What can we get more?

There was Koto playing inside the house.
It feels so good to hear Koto playing while looking at Autumn leaves.

We headed back to the hostel.
We encountered these stone buddha statues.

Somebody was drying these Japanese persimmon. Looks so yummy but we never touched them because we are not allowed.

The weather was so nice this cat felt asleep.

Nice characters.

We came across this shrine.

If you touch a part of this god caw, the part of your body gets better according to a traditional history.

We had a cake after getting back to the hostel.
It was a nice lunch break.

This dog like our entrance so much he doesn’t want to stand up.
He was there for about 10minutes.

Thanks for reading!
Have a wonderful Autumn day!!

Hi, everyone!
We are enjoying breezy Autumn.
There will be Autumn leaves season very soon.

We had a festival where two guys with fox maskes make acrobatic moves on bamboo polls which is 10m high.
It was held in Wakamiya Inari Shrine and the festival is called “Takengei”.
It was exciting although it was raining a bit.

This is a main building of the shrine.

Fox is a secred animal in the shrine.

This is a shrine gate with a good night view.

We saw fireworks after the festival. It was lucky.

This is a nice, friendly and wonderful couple from England!
It’s their second time to come to our hostel.
They have cool tattoos everywhere on their bodies!
Thank you for your stay!!

This is a tattoo of a famous ghibli movie called “Ponpoko”. He has to put colors in it. Wow, we are sure it’s going to turn out to be an awesome one!

Here’s a cute family from Belgium.
Look at cute smiles of the kids!!

By the way, there are two bridges to go to our nearest tram stop from our hostel.
One is a stone bridge which looks beautiful and you need to take stairs of it.
Another one is just an ordinary flat bridge which is easier to access the tram stop than the stone bridge.
We just found out that many of our guests choose to take the stone bridge.

For example the couple from England,,

Then the family from Belgium,,

It’s a fun way to make your journey more attractive and exciting 🙂
There is a tiny differences between those two bridges, but we want to take more fun and exciting way during we are travelling. It’s very interesting 🙂

Enjoy Autumn! Don’t get cold.

Breezy wind is blowing in Nagasaki.
Autumn is coming.

These two guests met here and became friends.
They look so alike.
Their smiles made me smile 🙂

This is a souvenir from guests from Czech Republic.
Its design is very nice 🙂

This is a ship used for Nagasaki festival called “Okunchi”.
It’s going to be held on 7th, 8th and 9th of October.

This picture was taken from inside tram that runs Nagasaki city.
It’s near Dejima.

We threw a takoyaki party.
We cooked so many takoyaki!

Looks so yummy!

We’re glad everybody was happy with the party!
These guests, also our friends :),  are from Switzerland.
Thanks for coming all the way to Nagasaki!

We hope you have a good time in this Autumn!
Have a great day!!

Hi, everyone.
It’s getting cooler in the morning and evening in Nagasaki, but it’s still hot at daytime.

Here’s a Mongolian girl ANO who help us cleaning and at the last day of her work, she kindly gave us Mongolian chess.

It’s very unique because pieces are made based on something related to Mongol.
For example instead of normal pieces, they put yurt, camel and Genghis Khan.

We went to art museum to have a look at an exhibition by an artist who stayed in AKARI.
It’s Chilean art called Arpilleras. It was not only cute but also interesting, because these art works are reflecting severe political situation when military took control of the country.

On the way to the museum, we saw this beautiful scenery.
It’s one of the old western houses in Dejima, and on the back Inasa mountain, which is famous for its night view , is in the sight.

These leaflets are guesthouses and cafes that AKARI staff has been to during a trip to islands in Nagasaki prefecture.

This is new paper cranes’ board.

They are about to go and have a walk near the hostel.
On the left our volunteer guide and on the right they are our guests.
Our short walk program is where you can hang around with Nagasaki locals.

Enjoy the walk!

Autumn is just around the corner.
Enjoy reading, exercising, and don’t forget eating delicious foods!

It’s the end of August.
Time flies so fast.

Hostel AKARI is running our hostel keeping our pace.
We are growing vegetables outside of the hostel.

We baked scone using basil that we are growing.

On 19th and 20th, there was summer festival along the riverside.
There were some people wearing Yukata that looked beautiful.
Spectacles bridge changes its face in every season.
It amuses us every time.

We had guests from Korea.
Kids were happy to stay in a bunk bed.
We were happy to see that 🙂

This is handmade instrument called cajon, we named it AKARI CAJON.
You can play it in the hostel.

This is an object sold at a shop nearby hostel.
It’s inspired by Nagasaki festival called Takengei, 竹ん芸.

Enjoy your summer!
Hasta la vista.